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Tuesday, 11 April 2017

Three Canes Make Central Scouting's Final Draft List

Jordy Bellerive, Ryan Bowen, and Stuart Skinner all made NHL Central Scouting's final 2017 draft list which came out Tuesday.

In total, 58 WHL players have been
listed by NHL Central Scouting in advance of the 2017 NHL
Draft, scheduled for June 23 and 24 in Chicago.

Heading the list is Nolan
Patrick (Winnipeg, Man. / Brandon Wheat Kings), who was ranked first among North
American skaters on both the midterm and final rankings. Joining Patrick in the
top five is Michael Rasmussen (Surrey, B.C. / Tri-City Americans), ranked fifth
after having moved up from sixth in the midterm rankings. Rounding out WHL
representation in the top 10 is Cody Glass (Winnipeg, Man. / Portland
Winterhawks), ranked sixth after having advanced from eighth in the midterm
rankings.

The WHL leads
the entire Canadian Hockey League with 13 skaters ranked in the top 31, followed
by the Ontario Hockey League with 11 skaters and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey
League with three skaters.

Of the 58 WHL players listed in NHL Central
Scouting’s final rankings, two have been nominated for WHL Awards, including
Heponiemi (Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy - Rookie of the Year) and Tyler
Steenbergen (Brad Hornung Trophy - Most Sportsmanlike Player of the Year), both
of the Swift Current Broncos.

At the 2016 NHL Draft, a total of 34 WHL
players were selected, including four during the first round.

Jordy Bellerive moved up to #82 among North American skaters. He was listed at #91 at the mid-term rankings.

Ryan Bowen dropped to #204 among North American skaters, from a mid-term rank of #112.

Stuart Skinner is ranked #5 among all North American goaltenders. His ranking improved from #8 at mid-term.

4 comments:

After being shut out in game one, outshot, and outworked in every game, it is incredible that the Canes have found a way to stay in this series.

Despite all their injuries and being outworked again in game 4, the Canes had chances and were one shot away from breaking the Tigers spirit and being up 3 games to 1. Instead, they took a two minute rest every power play, and 22 shots in regulation at home was pathetic. Now the task becomes much more difficult.

Game 5 - Friday.There is no excuse for the Canes consistently getting outworked. They need to make Friday Good by going hard at the net on their chances, and stop waving their sticks at the Tigers speedy forwards risking tripping penalties, and run them over instead.

The efforts of Bellerive, Vandervlis, Baer, Nagel, and Joseph will be keys in game 5. These guys are better than they have shown so far in this series and they need to difference makers in game 5.

Though it seems like an endless number of giveaways in their own zone, they are not only surviving, they are yet again leading this series still with an extremely depleted line up.

I love that the team is getting it done playing hard and fair. None of the brutal intent to injure garbage we saw with Sutter and his goons that got them tossed from games and suspended. And none of the embarrassing slash-dive-and-whine like I am seeing from some of the tigers little faggots.

Owre, Bradley, Butcher, Shaw, these little rooster-sucking cowards love to slash & hit from behind, then dive &/or throw themselves into the boards to draw penalties on any retaliation - All are skilled players that don't need to play that way. Don Cherry would vomit watching those players.

One of the many examples was Bradley drawing the 4-minute Menell spear penalty that wasn't called until the four stripes got together and watched the replay (game 2). They unfortunately didn't watch the part 3 seconds before Bradley's Oscar worthy performance when he slashed Menell hard across the back of the legs. Little preening cowardly pricks like Bradley don't deserve to play in the league. Only minutes later Babenko goes off unceremoniously with blood flowing off his head from one of the hits-from-behind that the Tigers have doled out in this series.

Don't retaliate to those Richard-less cowards, Canes. Just run them over fairly, score goals, and move on to the next round.

Some big props to the boys for sticking with it, and playing through adversity. Real big props to Skinner for playing like we all knew he could, and keeping the boys in the game when they are, at times, being clearly outplayed. With that being said, it is refreshing, when the chips are down and the ranks severely depleted, a team can win with hard work and serious character. While I don't know if this group has enough gas left to beat the Tiggers, it will certainly not be from a lack of effort. One thought:

We have heard as-naseum about the reffing. Before anyone gets on me about how it is not deciding games, it certainly is. To nail a team with not one but 2 two man advantages is absolutely criminal. Knowing that they had made a big boo-boo, a couple of the makeup calls to the Tigers were pathetic. I, and most other fans, simply want the calls to be consistent. If you are going to call it in the first, call it in the third...for both teams. Better yet, put the damn whistles away. This is playoff hockey...it should be intense, and nasty, and rough. For crying out loud, let the players decided the game. IMO, the best reffed games are the ones when you do NOT notice the ref. I, and most other fans, (and teams!!) expect and deserve high quality, consistent reffing in the playoffs. Nuff said about the awful refereeing.

Let's show The Gas Town goofballs what an intense, gritty, damn good hockey team can do when it's back is against the wall....

For the amount that they are actually playing, you may as well not even dress the young young guns that ride the pine!

For Tues, game 7, the Canes should dress extra D-men and use Riddell, Yewchuk, Prefontaine, &/or Jackson, as bruising, speedy, skilled forwards (not necessarily in that order, and obviously not all on the same forward line)?

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Pat Siedlecki is the former play-by-play voice of the WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes. He's originally from Foam Lake, Saskatchewan and went to broadcast school in Saskatoon before relocating to Vancouver Island in 1997. Pat was a play-by-play announcer for the BCHL's Alberni Valley Bulldogs for two seasons before heading to Nanaimo to become the voice of the BCHL's Nanaimo Clippers for four seasons. He relocated to Lethbridge in 2007 and is currently the Corporate News Director for Clear Sky Radio Inc. Pat has two kids, Larissa and Nikolas. He can be heard reading hourly newscasts on CJOC between Noon and 2pm weekdays.